I was my father’s last stake—he had lost my brother Bobby entirely,—he had lost, by his own computation, full three-fourths of me—that is, he had been unfortunate in his three first great casts for me—my geniture, nose, and name,—there was but this one left; and accordingly my father gave himself up to it with as much devotion as ever my uncle Toby had done to his doctrine of projectils.—The difference between them 60 was, that my uncle Toby drew his whole knowledge of projectils from Nicholas Tartaglia —My father spun his, every thread of it, out of his own brain,—or reeled and cross-twisted what all other spinners and spinsters had spun before him, that ’twas pretty near the same torture to him.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

The chivalrous King of Prussia, for he as we saw is here in person, may long rue the day; may look colder than ever on these dulled-bright Seigneurs, and French Princes their Country's hope;—and, on the whole, put on his great-coat without ceremony, happy that he has one.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

How the sense of beauty in its simplest form—that is, the reception of a peculiar kind of pleasure from certain colours, forms and sounds—was first developed in the mind of man and of the lower animals, is a very obscure subject.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

but this one left; and accordingly my father gave himself up to it with as much devotion as ever my uncle Toby had done to his doctrine of projectils.—The difference between them was, that my uncle Toby drew his whole knowledge of projectils from Nicholas Tartaglia—My father spun his, every thread of it, out of his own brain,—or reeled and cross-twisted what all other spinners and spinsters had spun before him, that 'twas pretty near the same torture to him.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

But the little rogue was not unobserved, for the theft had been witnessed by an old shepherd named Battus, who was tending the flocks of Neleus, king of Pylos (father of Nestor).
— from Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome by E. M. Berens

And now that five-and-fifty years were gone, she spoke of the dead man as if he had been her son or grandson, with a kind of pity for his youth, growing out of her own old age, and an exalting of his strength and manly beauty as compared with her own weakness and decay; and yet she spoke about him as her husband too, and thinking of herself in connexion with him, as she used to be and not as she was now, talked of their meeting in another world, as if he were dead but yesterday, and she, separated from her former self, were thinking of the happiness of that comely girl who seemed to have died with him.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

In the following book I shall treat of the kinds of polished finish employed to make them elegant, and durable without defects to a great age.
— from The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius Pollio

As, for the earth throwne lowest downe of all, 50 T'were an ambition to desire to fall, So God, in our desire to dye, doth know Our plot for ease, in being wretched so.
— from The Poems of John Donne, Volume 1 (of 2) Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts by John Donne

“I was a little fellow then, but I had the same love that I have now for all kinds of human things,—a kind of passion for the study of humanity, come in what shape it would.
— from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

And if our peace ever is spoken in vain as regards others, it will come back to us again; and we shall be kept in perfect peace, even in the midst of strife, until we enter at last into the city of peace and serve the King of Peace for ever.
— from Expositions of Holy Scripture Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Minor Prophets. St. Matthew Chapters I to VIII by Alexander Maclaren

In virtue of this treaty, Gortz made a proposal to the governor of Pomerania, Meyerfeld, to give up the fortress of Stetin to the king of Prussia for the sake of peace, thinking that the Swedish governor of Stetin would prove as easy to be persuaded as the Holsteiner who had the command of Toningen; but the officers of Charles XII. were not accustomed to obey such orders.
— from The History of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia by Voltaire

Evidently the young pupil gained little besides a technical knowledge of painting from this master,—the mechanical processes, the modes of mixing and applying colors, the chemistry of pigments, and a certain facility in using them.
— from Dürer Artist-Biographies by M. F. (Moses Foster) Sweetser

122 An extremely curious instance of an entire decoration of a building consisting of crosses and five-dot groups, is furnished by the cenotaph erected by a late king in honor of Midas, king of Phrygia (fig.
— from The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations A Comparative Research Based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican Religious, Sociological, and Calendrical Systems by Zelia Nuttall

Thus everything went on smoothly, Satan left her in peace, whilst others kept on praying for her and claiming this precious soul for the Lord.
— from Everlasting Pearl: One of China's Women by Anna Magdalena Johannsen

A clear field and a good horse, that’s the kind of petting for you!
— from Taras Bulba, and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol

Execute all kinds of PRINTING, Furnish all kinds of STATIONERY, Make all kinds of BLANK BOOKS, Execute the finest styles of LITHOGRAPHY Makes the Best and Cheapest ENVELOPES Ever offered to the Public.
— from Punchinello, Volume 2, No. 38, December 17, 1870. by Various

I have a pride, too, David, a different kind of pride from theirs.
— from The Mountain Girl by Payne Erskine

As the long flap is folded upon itself so as to form a kind of pouch for the end of the bone, it is requisite that it should be held in its folded state by a point of suture on each side.
— from A Manual of the Operations of Surgery For the Use of Senior Students, House Surgeons, and Junior Practitioners by Joseph Bell

And yet the night passed without breaking him—a kind of passage from one numbed dream to another....
— from The Last Ditch by Will Levington Comfort